Question 1

QUESTION I.


On humility with respect to its act, namely whether it belongs to Christian perfection to abase oneself for Christ.

And since a habit is known through its acts, therefore we must inquire about humility with respect to its act. The question, therefore, is whether it belongs to Christian perfection to abase oneself for Christ. And that it does is shown as follows:

1. First, by the authority of Christ himself, who says in Matthew 18: Unless you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; but to make oneself little is nothing other than to become vile in one's own eyes and to wish to be regarded as vile by others: therefore, etc.

2. Likewise, Matthew 20: Whoever would be first among you shall be your servant: but to make oneself a servant of others is to abase oneself with the greatest abasement: therefore, etc.

3. Likewise, Luke 17: When you shall have done all the things that are commanded you, say: We are unprofitable servants: but whoever rightly says something wishes to be believed, and believes what he says to be true: therefore, for someone to be a perfect disciple of Christ, it is necessary that he regard himself as vile and that he wish to be so regarded by others.

4. Likewise, Luke 22: He that is the greater among you, let him become as the lesser; and he that is the leader, as he that serves: but if the least were to make himself as the greatest, it would be the height of ambition and pride: therefore conversely, when the greater becomes the lesser and the leader becomes as the servant, this will be the height of self-abasement: and this ought to be done according to the evangelical teaching: therefore, etc.

5. Likewise, John 13: You call me master and lord, etc., up to: to wash the feet; from this authority it is gathered by reasoning that the disciple of Christ, on account of his master, ought to bow himself down even to the most extreme form of humiliation and abasement.

6. Likewise, Philippians 2: Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form, etc.: but to empty oneself is nothing other than to abase oneself: if therefore we ought to imitate Christ in this, self-emptying and self-abasement belong to evangelical perfection.

7. Likewise, on that passage Bernard says in a sermon on the Nativity of the Lord: "What necessity was there for the God of majesty to so empty himself, so humble himself, so diminish himself, unless that you should do likewise? Already he cries out by example what he will preach by word." And shortly after: "It is intolerable impudence that, where majesty emptied itself, a little worm should puff itself up and swell with pride." If therefore we ought to imitate Christ in such self-emptying, it remains that to be abased belongs to the perfection of virtue.

8. On 2 Kings 6, upon the text: Michal, the daughter of Saul, looking out, saw King David leaping and dancing, and she despised him in her heart; Gregory says: "Behold, the one whom the Lord singularly preferred above all others despises himself before the Lord by making himself equal to the least and by exhibiting what is abject. The power of kingship is not recalled to memory; he does not fear to become vile in the eyes of his subjects by dancing. What others may think of these deeds, I do not know; I am more amazed at David dancing than at David fighting: by fighting he conquered his enemy, but by dancing before the Lord he conquered himself." If, therefore, to conquer oneself is a work of perfect virtue, and this is accomplished through self-abasement: therefore, etc.

9. Likewise, a little further on in the same place: I will play and become yet more vile, etc.; upon which Gregory says: "As if he were openly saying: I desire to become vile before men, because I seek to keep myself noble before God through humility." If, therefore, to be noble before God is nothing other than to be perfect, and self-abasement makes one noble before God: therefore it is an act of perfect virtue.

10. Likewise, on Jonah 3, upon the text: Let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth: the Gloss says: "Behold, the king of Nineveh rises from his throne; he exchanges purple for sackcloth, ointments for mud, clean things for filth." But this is to abase oneself in the highest degree, not only interiorly but also exteriorly, and through this the wrathful God was appeased: therefore self-abasement is a work most acceptable to God.

11. Likewise, Augustine, in On True Religion: "All those things which we wrongly avoided losing because we desired to have them, Christ by going without them made vile: for no sin can be committed except by desiring what He despised or by fleeing what He endured." But Christ endured abasement not under compulsion but willingly, and He refused honors: if, therefore, we wish to be abased for His sake, let us conform ourselves to Him in the discipline of conduct.

12. Likewise, Gregory in the first book of the Dialogues says thus: "In the praises of Constantius, one must consider what degree of humility he possessed within himself, since he loved all the more the rustic man who despised him. For what sort of person anyone is in secret, an insult inflicted upon him proves. For just as the proud rejoice in honors, so the humble generally rejoice in being despised: and when they see themselves vile even in the eyes of others, they therefore rejoice, because they understand that through this the judgment is confirmed which they themselves had already formed about themselves within themselves." From this authority it is manifestly gathered that no one is truly humble unless he is vile in his own eyes and wills to be so in the eyes of others.

13. Likewise, Bernard, on the Song of Songs, homily sixteen: "The truly humble man wishes to be reckoned vile, not to be proclaimed humble." But humility is not virtuous unless it is true humility: therefore, if true humility cannot exist without voluntary self-abasement, by equal reasoning neither can virtuous humility.

14. This same point is shown by reason. As pride is related to exaltation, so humility is related to vileness: but there is never pride without a desire for exaltation: therefore there is never true humility without a desire for vileness.

15. Furthermore, as lasciviousness is related to austerity, so pride is related to vileness: but lasciviousness is not eradicated from us except through the rigor of austerity: therefore neither is pride except through the vileness of self-abasement: therefore self-vilification is an act that extinguishes pride, and thereby an act of perfect virtue.

16. Furthermore, no one can be justified from original sin unless he subjects himself to the Sacraments, which are sensible signs: but to subject oneself to a sensible sign cannot be without great abasement; yet more is required to remove actual sin: therefore, for someone to be justified, it is required not only that he be humbled interiorly, but also exteriorly.

17. Furthermore, a contemner of God is worthy of the highest reproach and contempt: but the sinner is a contemner of God, therefore he is supremely to be despised: therefore he who despises himself as a sinner does what he ought and judges himself justly. But this pertains to perfect virtue: therefore, etc.

18. Furthermore, there are two things in sin, namely concupiscence and contempt of God; but a man cannot be justified from sin in which there was concupiscence unless the pain of compunction is present: therefore by equal reasoning he cannot be justified from pride nor from contempt of God except through contempt and vilification of himself.

19. Furthermore, the city of God is the opposite of the city of Babylon: but the city of Babylon begins from love of self and arrives at contempt of God: therefore conversely the city of God begins from contempt of self and arrives at love of God. If therefore to despise and vilify oneself pertains to the foundation of the divine city: therefore it is a work of perfect virtue.

20. Furthermore, no one rightly walks the path of virtue unless he renders the honor due to God: but he who vilifies himself for God's sake is the one who honors God: therefore, etc. The major is manifest in itself; the minor is proved by what is said in Ecclesiasticus 3: Great is the power of God alone, and He is honored by the humble: and Baruch 2: The soul that is sorrowful over the greatness of evil and goes bowed down and feeble, and the failing eyes, and the hungering soul gives You glory and justice, O Lord.

21. Furthermore, the more one is conformed to the exemplar of the virtues, the more perfect he is; but Christ on the cross is the exemplar of perfect virtue, where He was in the utmost abasement; therefore each one is the more perfect the more he approaches that abasement.

22. Furthermore, no virtue is in the true perfection of virtue unless it approves each thing according as it is to be approved: but, as is said in the Psalm, every living man is altogether vanity: therefore no one is of perfect virtue unless he considers himself vain and useless, and wills to be so considered by everyone.

23. Furthermore, no virtue is perfect unless, when it can, it issues forth into outward action; but the outward action corresponding to interior abasement is the exterior vilification of oneself: therefore no one possesses in himself the virtue of perfect humility unless he wills to show himself outwardly as vile and abject, when the place and time present themselves.

24. Furthermore, the virtue of perfect humility reforms what the vice of pride has deformed; but pride disorders cognition through presumption, affection through arrogance, speech through boasting, and bearing through ostentation and insolence: therefore no one has perfect humility unless he has the contraries of these in thought, affection, speech, and bearing.

25. Furthermore, perfect virtue distances not only from vices, but also from the kindling of vices: but the display of interior goods and exterior honor are kindling of pride: therefore perfect humility distances from these. But to be distanced from honor is to approach vileness and ignominy: therefore etc.

On the contrary 1.: "Virtue is a habit of the mind consonant with reason in the mode of nature"; but nature naturally desires to be advanced and not cast down: therefore self-abasement is against the dictate of nature: therefore it is not a work of perfect humility.

2. Furthermore, "virtue is the order of love," as is said in the book On the Morals of the Church; but when a greater one subjects himself to an inferior, there is disorder and perversion of order: therefore it is not a work of virtue.

3. Furthermore, virtue consists in the mean; but he who abases himself approaches the extreme: therefore he departs from the act of perfect virtue.

4. Furthermore, every virtue has truth as its foundation: for where truth is lacking, virtue cannot exist: but a just and perfect man, regarding himself as more vile than others, when he thinks such a thing, judges falsely: therefore if such a thought is repugnant to truth, it must be repugnant to virtue.

5. Furthermore, he who vilifies the work vilifies the maker; but man is the work of God: therefore he who vilifies himself vilifies God. But to vilify God is not of perfect virtue, but a fault: therefore etc.

6. Furthermore, among all creatures man is the noblest creature, therefore most to be honored and esteemed in the whole universe of things: therefore he who vilifies himself disorders the universe.

7. Furthermore, to vilify another is a sin: but a man is bound to love himself just as his neighbor: therefore he who renders himself contemptible acts against the order of charity.

8. Furthermore, when another considers you vile, he sins: therefore if you will that another regard you as vile, you will that another sin: but this is a disordered will: therefore etc.

9. Furthermore, the soul is the image of God, therefore it is naturally born to be conformed to him; but God is supremely good, wise, and exalted: therefore the appetite for excellence belongs to the reformation of the image of our mind: therefore on the contrary the appetite for self-abasement is not a work of virtue.

10. Furthermore, there are three desirable things, namely the good, the true, and the arduous; but no virtue or appetite of virtue consists in desiring the contrary of the true or the good: therefore neither in desiring the contrary of the arduous. But self-abasement is of this kind: wherefore etc.

11. Furthermore, every virtue and act of virtue has its exemplar in God; but self-abasement has no exemplar in God, because God in no way abases himself.

12. Likewise, every virtue renders a man conformed to the state of glory, inasmuch as "it is the disposition of the perfect toward the best"; but self-abasement directly opposes glorification: therefore, etc.

13. Likewise, an objection is raised against exterior humiliation: because it is a sign of the interior; but it is pride to profess in word that one is humble; therefore it is pride to display this very thing by a sign.

14. Likewise, you who display humility by a sign either consider yourself humble or not: if so, then you attribute to yourself a noble virtue, therefore you are proud; if not, then since your outward bearing shows you to be humble, you carry one thing in your mind and display another by your sign: therefore you are a hypocrite.

15. Likewise, every part that does not befit its whole is unseemly; but these singularities of habits seem to disfigure the good ecclesiastical state: therefore this does not pertain to perfect virtue or Christian perfection.

CONCLUSION.


The foundation of all Christian perfection is humility, whose act is the interior and exterior abasement of oneself.

Solution: For the understanding of the aforesaid, it must be noted that the summit of all Christian perfection consists in humility, whose act is exterior and interior abasement of oneself. For the summit of all Christian perfection revolves around three things, namely around grace, justice, and wisdom, according to which three things Christ is said to be the way, the truth, and the life. For the gift of grace provides the way to the truth of justice, in which consists the exercise of action; the truth of justice leads to the taste of wisdom, in which consists the consolation of contemplation; when these have been perfectly attained, one ascends to the summit of evangelical perfection, which Christ Jesus taught by word and example, who specially professed himself the master of humility, in Matthew 11: Learn from me, etc. For humility is the gateway of wisdom, the foundation of justice, and the dwelling place of grace.

It is the gateway of wisdom: because wisdom is "the knowledge of the highest and first causes," not only by way of speculative and intellectual knowledge, but also of savoring and experiential knowledge. Since therefore all things whatsoever that have been made flow from one principle and have been produced from nothing, he is truly wise who truthfully recognizes his own and others' nothingness and the sublimity of the first principle. Whence Augustine prays in the second book of the Soliloquies: "May I know you, may I know myself." But no one arrives at full knowledge of God except through true and right knowledge of oneself; nor does he rightly know himself who does not attend to his own nothingness; for he who thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, deceives himself, as the Apostle says in the last chapter of Galatians; but to know one's own nothingness is to humble oneself: therefore humility is the gateway of wisdom.

And this the Wise Man says in Proverbs eleven: Where there is humility, there is also wisdom; this is also what Wisdom Himself says in Matthew eleven: You have revealed these things to little ones etc.: on which Bernard, in On the Steps of Humility: "It appears that the truth which is hidden from the proud is revealed to the humble. Humility, moreover, is the virtue by which a man, through true knowledge of himself, becomes worthless in his own eyes: and this befits those who, having disposed ascents in their heart, advance from step to step until they reach the summit of humility, in which, as if placed in Sion, they behold the truth." And a little later: "He who commanded humility leads to truth"; whence also the ladder of Jacob, "what else does it suggest to us, except that in the summit of humility consists the knowledge of truth?" And a little later: "Good is the way of humility, by which truth is found, charity is acquired, the fruits of wisdom are partaken of."

It is also the foundation of justice. For it belongs to justice to "render to each one what is his own," both to God and to oneself and to one's neighbor. But to God is principally owed honor and reverence; and humility especially disposes one to render this, according to that passage in Ecclesiasticus three: How great is the power of God alone, and He is honored by the humble. Since, therefore, the beginning of all justice is the worship and honor of God, and this is rendered to God by the humble: hence it is that the root and foundation of all justice is humility.

Whence on that passage in Matthew three: Thus it becomes us to fulfill; the Gloss: "that is, all humility, which is all justice." And Gregory in a Homily: "In the other things which you do, hold humility as the root of good work. For even if any works be present, they are nevertheless nothing unless they are seasoned with humility: for a wondrous action accompanied by pride does not elevate but weighs down. For he who gathers virtues without humility carries dust into the wind: and whence he is perceived to see, thence he is the more grievously blinded." The same: "Whatever you build grows entirely toward ruin, if before the mass of the structure you do not lay the foundations of humility."

It is nevertheless the dwelling place of grace. For grace makes a man pleasing to God: but he is pleasing to God who recognizes the gift of divine favor and condescension: yet no one recognizes this except one who is attentive to his own unworthiness: and such a one is truly humble: and hence it is that the grace of the Holy Spirit rests upon the humble alone.

Whence in the last chapter of Isaiah: Upon whom does My Spirit rest if not upon the humble etc.; Augustine, in the third book of On Christian Doctrine: "For this reason the sins of great men were written down, so that that apostolic saying might everywhere be feared: Wherefore let him who seems to stand take heed lest he fall. For there is no page of the holy books in which it does not resound: God resists the proud, but to the humble He gives grace ."

Because, therefore, humility is the dwelling-place of grace, hence it is that in it consists the summit of all evangelical perfection. And this is what Augustine says to Dioscorus: "You will find no other way for yourself to seize and obtain the truth than that which was found by Him who, as God, sees the weakness of our steps. Now the first is humility, the second humility, the third humility; and as often as you might ask, I would say this, not that there are not other precepts which may be spoken of, but unless humility has both preceded and accompanied and followed all things whatsoever that we do well, and been set before us that we may gaze upon it, and placed beside us that we may cling to it, and imposed upon us that we may be restrained: already, while we rejoice over some good deed, pride wrests the whole thing from our hand. And so, if you were to ask, and as often as you might ask, about the precepts of the Christian religion, I would choose to respond with nothing other than humility: and if I were to speak of other things beyond this, necessity would compel it."

Now the act of this kind of humility is not only interior, but also exterior humiliation and self-abasement. And the reason for this is: because, since being is twofold, namely of nature and of grace, nothingness is twofold: in one way by opposition to the being of nature, in another way by opposition to the being of morals and grace. And accordingly, humility, which exists through the consideration of, or which is contemplative of, our nothingness, is twofold: one indeed may be called the humility of truth, which arises from the consideration of nothingness by opposition to the being of nature; and this is found not only in human beings, but also in the Angels, not only in wayfarers, but also in the Blessed. The other may be called the humility of severity, which arises from the consideration of fault; by which, when a man through pride considers himself to have been plunged down, he rises up against himself by a certain severe censure through humility, abasing himself not only inwardly in his own eyes, but also outwardly in the eyes of others. Whence self-abasement, not only exterior but also interior, is an act of the virtue of humility, nonetheless consonant with evangelical perfection, if there be attended to in it the due origin and manner and fruit.

For in its origin exterior humiliation ought to proceed from interior humility according to the dictate and rule of the divine gift; and this can be done according to the law of divine precept, or of divine good pleasure, or of divine counsel. Precept regards all universally: good pleasure regards those to whom the divine will is specially inspired: counsel indeed regards those who ascend to the summit of perfection. And concerning these three it is said to the Romans: that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God. Rightly therefore does he humble himself who conforms himself to the divine will according to any one of these three modes, according to which the spirit of true humility inclines different persons to different kinds of humiliations.

The manner of exterior humiliation, however, is that there be preserved in it manliness, truth, and propriety; manliness against pusillanimity, which casts down the spirit; truth against hypocrisy, which deceives men; propriety against foolishness, which dishonors men and makes them play the fool.

The fruit of this humiliation, however, is that it avails for acquiring humility, for exercising it, and for perfecting it. Whence, on that passage in John thirteen: And you ought to wash one another's feet — the Gloss says: "He who bows down at the feet, in his heart humility is stirred up; or if it already exists in the heart, the disposition of humility is confirmed." And Bernard, in a certain letter to Ogerius: "Humility, to which humiliation assuredly leads, is the foundation of the entire spiritual edifice; since humiliation is the way to humility, just as patience is to peace, just as reading is to knowledge. If you desire the virtue of humility, do not flee from the way of humiliation; for if you cannot be humiliated, you will not be able to advance to humility." This humiliation, moreover, he calls the vilification of oneself; whence he also adds: "I will play and become yet more vile, I will play, that is, so that I may be mocked. A good game, at which Michal grows angry, but God is delighted; a good game, which provides a laughingstock indeed to men, but a spectacle to the Angels; a good game, I say, in which we are made a reproach to the affluent and a contempt to the proud. With this chaste and devout game he was playing who said: We are made a spectacle to this world and to Angels and to men. With this game let us also play in the meantime, that we may be mocked and confounded and humbled, until he comes who casts down the mighty and exalts the humble, who will make us glad, exalt us, and glorify us for eternity."

From these things it is manifestly gathered that to humble and vilify oneself for Christ is a work of perfect virtue and consonant with Christian religious life and perfection. Whence the arguments and authorities that are adduced for this position are to be conceded.

1. To that which is first objected, that virtue is consonant with nature, and nature always desires to be advanced: it must be said that although according to the outward appearance, the act of humility, which is the vilification of oneself, seems to be dissonant from the instinct of nature, yet according to truth and its intrinsic rationale it is most consonant with nature itself, both with respect to its origin and with respect to its conservation, and also with respect to its advancement. For every nature, from the fact that it is from nothing, has some defect in itself and proclaims itself to be defective.

Nature is also preserved in this, that it maintains unity in its component principles and also in its quantitative parts according to its powers: also in this, that it expels everything that induces dispersion, as far as is possible for it. - Moreover, it advances in this, that it desires to receive influence from a higher nature, to which it subjects itself, so that it may be perfected by it. Since, therefore, it belongs to humility to recognize one's own deficiency, to reduce oneself to a certain unitive smallness, to repel from oneself the spirit of self-exaltation and pride as something dispersive, to subject and offer oneself to the influence of supernal grace: hence it is that humility in truth accords with the act and instinct of nature. Whence that argument assumes something false when it says that humility is discordant with the instinct of nature and that its act is to abase oneself. - It could also be said otherwise, that that definition belongs to moral virtue, which is rooted in the natural dictate. But this act of humility is founded in the faith of Jesus Christ, which is an act above reason and exceeds the limits of nature. And therefore that argument does not hold.

2. To the objection that virtue is the ordering of love, it must be said that the ordering of love which is considered in virtue principally, radically, and essentially regards this, that God be preferred to the creature; and every other ordering is annexed to and, as it were, directs toward this ordering as toward the principal ordering. Since therefore, as Augustine says, in order that the Creator may become sweet in the heart, it is fitting that the creature become vile; and because that creature which most obstructs this ordering is one's own person and private good: therefore, for preserving the perfect ordering of virtue, it is most fitting that one abase oneself; which one does when one subjects oneself to another for the sake of God and places another before oneself, while preserving, however, the dignity of the ecclesiastical order, which true humility does not pervert nor neglect nor set aside, but rather preserves, while inwardly humility is maintained in the heart, and outwardly authority endures in its proper degree.

3. To the objection that virtue is a habit consisting in a mean, it must be said that this statement is understood not of a mean with respect to quantity on the part of the object, but with respect to distance from the deficiency and excess that have the character of vice, and thus the abasement of self is the work of virtue standing as a mean between pusillanimity and arrogance. Whence, although it may seem to incline toward an extreme, in truth it nevertheless holds the mean.

Moreover, as has been touched upon, the abasement of self is not only an act of virtue informing nature, but also an example of virtue repairing it; whence it holds more the character of a remedy than of a perfection; and because the disease corrupting the human race is above all the haughtiness of pride and arrogance, and the remedy must be by way of the contrary: therefore, by inclining toward the other extreme, it leads back to the mean: as can be seen by a similar example in the strictness of fasting and abstinence against the disease of licentiousness.

4. To that objection, that every virtue has a foundation of truth: it must be said that this is true and has its place in humility, because the very truth of the divine law dictates that each person ought to think more humbly of himself than of another. Whence, just as each person naturally feels his own afflictive ailment more than another's, so each person ought to reconsider his own defect more certainly, more closely, and more frequently, and on this account ought to regard himself as more vile than others—not because he is certain that he is such, but because he is more certain of his own vanity or vileness than of another's. Therefore, as is said in the Gloss on Philippians 2: In humility esteeming one another as superior to themselves, "we ought not so to esteem this that we pretend to esteem it, but truly esteem that there can be something hidden in another by which he is superior to us, even if our own good, by which we seem superior to him, is not hidden." And thus it is apparent that self-abasement is not founded upon falsehood but upon truth, namely according to experiential knowledge of one's own defect, which each person has, as it were, singularly with respect to another—just as each just person has some singular excellence with respect to another, by reason of which in the praise of any Confessor it is said: There was none found like unto him.

5. To that objection: he who abases what was made; it must be said that the creature, because it was made by God from nothing and was vitiated in the first man by original sin, has in itself something of deiformity by reason of Him from whom it is, and something of defectibility by reason of that from which it is, and something of deformity by reason of the vice under which it is: and just as by reason of deiformity it is to be honored, because there shines forth in it the vestige, image, and likeness of God, so by reason of defectibility it can be held of little account, and by reason of deformity regarded as vile—not to the dishonor but to the honor of God, since honor is taken away only through the deformity of vice and sin.

6. To that objection, that man is the noblest creature: it must be said that by the reason whereby he has in himself the deiformity of the image, he is placed before the rest; but by the reason whereby he has defectibility and nothingness, he is made equal to others; yet because he has the deformity of viciousness, he is placed after the rest: whence the impious are most fittingly placed in hell by reason of sin, and by reason of this, self-abasement befits the sinner, which, when it is voluntary, has the character of virtue and of remedy.

7. To that objection, that to abase another is a sin: it must be said that to abase another is to place oneself before another, but to abase oneself is to subject oneself to another: and the first belongs to pride, the second to humility and reverence; and therefore the case is not similar on both sides.

8. To the objection that he who wishes to be considered vile by another wishes that the other sin: it must be said that this argument fails in two ways. First, because a suffering can be good even though the action is evil, as is clear in the Passion of Christ, in which there was merit on the part of Christ who endured, and demerit on the part of the crucifier; and therefore it does not follow that if someone wishes to suffer something in which another sins, that on this account he wishes the other to sin.

Furthermore, when someone wishes to be considered vile, he does not wish this by reason of nature or person, but by reason of fault against nature; and he who despises or hates that fault, whether in himself or in another, can do this meritoriously and without sin.

9. To the objection that the soul naturally desires to be conformed to God: it must be said that certain things are proper to divine excellence, such as divine judgment and vengeance, honor, etc.; and in such things he who desires to be conformed desires in a disordered manner, as Lucifer did. But certain things are such as He communicates to the creature, such as goodness, truth, and virtue, which is shown most greatly when one can master oneself; and therefore it does not follow that self-vilification is repugnant to the image of God.

10. To the objection that three things are desirable, namely the true, the good, and the arduous: it must be said that just as virtue is concerned with the true good, and vice with the apparent good: so pride regards arduousness that is apparent, which is very difficult and arduous to despise; but humility is the vilification of self, which includes true arduousness, although it is repugnant to the apparent. — Furthermore, no one truly humble vilifies himself except for this reason: that he wishes to be eternally exalted.

11. 12. To the objection that every virtue has its exemplar in God: it must be said that humility, with respect to what pertains to its completeness, namely not to exceed one's own limits, has its exemplar in God; but with respect to what regards defect and subjection to another, it does not have its exemplar in God, who has no defect and has no superior. Nevertheless, lest man on account of the lack of an exemplar should neglect to humble himself, it pleased God to assume the form of a servant and in that form to be humbled, despised, and vilified, so that others might be inflamed by so great an exemplar to the perfect vilification of self.

13. 14. To the objection about exterior humiliation, that it is a sign of interior humiliation: it must be said that such humiliation is not a sign of humility already acquired, but of the will to exercise oneself in acquiring humility; and this indeed ought to be and is in every good person who bears religion in his heart.

And through this the response to the following objection is clear, because through this a person neither says, nor boasts, nor displays that he is humble, but that he wishes to acquire and possess humility.

15. To the last objection, that every part which does not befit the whole is base, etc.: it must be said that, as Augustine says, "if all things were equal, not all things would exist." And therefore order, distinction, and multiplicity in professions and habits does not disfigure but adorns the whole of the Church; whence, just as one who would not wish these small creatures to exist in the universe would be an assailant of the totality of the world, so one who would wish to uproot from the Church vile and abject habits is an assailant of the universal Church.